The present invention generally relates to an improved system and method for changing the status of one or more system services over an insecure network. More specifically, it relates to a system and method for changing the status of one or more system services that can handle rapid status changes.
A computer commonly utilizes various services, such as different protocol services. This is especially true in a network system. Whenever the status of a service is changed, it is generally required that the computer be rebooted, meaning the computer has to be restarted or the power source must be turned off and on, before the status change of the service can take effect. Because user intervention is needed (e.g., rebooting the computer), prior methods are not equipped to handle any rapid changes of the service status, since the computer must be restarted every time a service status is changed.
One prior method of allowing a request source to initiate and disable the service involved sending a status change notification to the registered connected sources, which are sources that are registered to receive a notification whenever the service status has been changed. Once the connected sources finished handling the last event with this protocol, the service was informed, but not the request source, who was actually disabling the service.
One problem with this prior method was that since the request source had no way of knowing if the connected sources using the service had finished with their last operations, the request source could disable the service prematurely, before the connected sources had a chance to finish the last operation with the service. This could cause an error in the computer or network system, or worst, unknown system behavior.
Still another problem with this prior method was that by allowing a request source to be disabled, the system could be abused, such as by continuous and rapid changes to the service status, which could cause multiple conflicting status change notifications to be sent internally throughout the system. These conflicting internal notifications could easily slow down the processing speed of the computer or network to the point of being no longer effective. In the worst cases, the computer or network system could become so confused that it could not be fully recovered.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method for changing the status of one or more system services that can handle the rapid status changes of the services.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an improved system and method for changing the status of one or more system services that does not disable the service until all connected sources have completed their operations with the service or a predefined timeout has expired.
Other objects, features and advantages will become apparent upon reading the detailed description set forth herein, in conjunction with the attached drawings.
The present invention generally relates to an improved system and method for changing the status of one or more system services. More particularly, it relates to a system and method for changing the status of one or more system services that can handle rapid status changes.
The present invention provides an improved system and method for changing the status of one or more system services that can handle rapid status changes. With the use of an external data manager object and an internal data manager object, the present invention prevents the services from being prematurely disabled, and gives all the connected sources an opportunity to complete their operations with the service. In addition, the status change of the service can be achieved without any user intervention, such as a computer reboot (i.e., restarting the computer). Furthermore, these systems can be susceptible to rapid status change requests but cannot handle such requests as rapidly as they can be received.
The present invention includes at least one external data manager object for indicating the status of one or more system services that are available to request sources, at least one internal data manager object for indicating the status of one or more system services that are available to connected sources, and a configuration task for maintaining the external data manager object and the internal data manager object.